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Mon.May.28.2007

12:52 pm EDT        80°F (27°C) in Manassas, VA

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Before I start with this update, I just want to remind everybody that this is Memorial Day here in the United States. This is our day to remember and thank those who have fought for our country, in both heroic causes like World War II and disastrous mistakes like Chimpy’s current oil “war.” Our soldiers’ sacrifices are worthy of the same honor and respect, no matter how noble or despicable the emperor president who sends them into battle or the stated reason for the action might be. Remember that while you’re out in your back yard barbecuing today.

I have a bit of a follow-up to my May 23 update, in which I thoroughly destroyed the “fundamentalist ‘Christian’” talking point about those who voice their Godly disapproval of Jerry Falwell types somehow being “God-haters.” Specifically, I have a bit more to say in response to two of Satan’s most loyal servants, Peter LaBarbera and Stacy Harp, who kept repeating the aforementioned charge in recent entries on their blogs. Since Harp did so largely as an epithet without any kind of logical support whatsoever, this is directed mostly toward LaBarbera, whose reason for positing such an absurd claim about God’s dearly beloved gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender children was essentially that “homosexuals hate God because His Word condemns their lifestyle” or some similar male-cow excrement.

To even begin to deconstruct this insanity, we must for a moment assume that I actually did accept the “fundamentalist” interpretation of the six supposedly anti-gay passages in the Bible as true. Even if this were the case, my disagreement would be a respectful one with no hatred whatsoever — I still couldn’t bring myself to accept that a loving God would create people knowing that the nature He gave them would be as “sinful” as “fundamentalists” claim. There is no hatred of God involved here — there is simply a disagreement with “fundamentalists” as to how the Bible ought to be interpreted. Their approach is literal, all the self-contradictions be damned; I believe that the interpretation should always conform to the loving, inclusive example of Jesus, even when that contradicts the text.

I would have no major problems whatsoever with so-called “fundamentalist ‘Christians’” if they would simply state their position and be done with it. I can accept the fact that they read the Bible in a way different from the way I read it, and I would simply have a respectful disagreement with their views. The problem comes in when they practically spend every waking moment forcing their views on the rest of the world. When they push for constitutional amendments that deny us the more than 1,100 legal rights and responsibilities of civil marriage, when they demonize us to the point where they create an entire culture of fear, and when they mock Godly efforts (such as hate-crimes laws) to erase this culture of fear as “special rights,” they cease to be Christian anymore, and instead become Christofascist terrorists.

Yes, my much greater enmity — and according to Luke 20:20-26, God’s as well — is upon those who have undertaken a 30-year campaign of lies and propaganda to enshrine their twisted interpretation of God’s Word into law. When we as a society spend more time writing and enforcing laws that restrict what one can do with one’s reproductive organs than we spend trying to help the millions of starving, needy people in our midst, we anger God and dishonor His Word. When we dismiss the perfect love that two same-gender people have for each other as “disgusting” and “sinful” and work to deny equal rights to such couples, we are actively screaming “FUCK YOU, JESUS!” through our actions.

If I can be accused of any sort of hatred, it is not at all for God — it is instead for the lies and fabrications spread by so-called “fundamentalist ‘Christians’.” What I hate is the reprobate sin of these so-called “Christians,” not the people who are guilty of it — it’s just like they always say, love the sinner and hate the sin. For some reason, though, so-called “fundamentalist ‘Christian’” leaders — probably in an attempt to further inflame hateful passions in their flocks — fabricate a non-existent hatred of God out of this righteous hatred of their anti-gay lies and propaganda, simply because it suits their un-Christian agenda to do so.

The aforementioned passage from the Gospel of Luke commands Christians to “render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and render unto God what belongs to God.” This means that Christians must respect the firm division between church and state, and not try to mix the two as they are doing with their current anti-gay and anti-choice campaigns. Furthermore, their attempt to force their views on everybody else runs afoul of Jesus’ command in Luke 10:10-11, which tells them that when they are not welcomed in a place, they are to leave that place and let God handle it — not condemn the place or issue earthly threats to it.

If Christians would simply begin to observe these passages in the Gospel, I think they would find GLBT audiences to be much more welcoming. We’re not stupid, and when we see the hypocrisy they countenance by ignoring these words of God, we rightly resist their un-Christian advances. They, of course, take this as some kind of “persecution,” because their self-righteousness doesn’t allow them to see it any other way — totally neglecting the fact that all righteousness flows from God. Yet another passage from Luke, this time Luke 18:9-14, is educational here.

I don’t yet know what I’ll be doing after I get this load taken off my trailer here. I do know that I’m supposed to be back home on Saturday, assuming the company doesn’t fuck that up somehow. Anyway, enjoy all your barbecues, and I’ll be back here in a while with the next installment of Larry’s Phat Page.